Floods threaten NSW city

The city centre of Wagga Wagga, in New South Wales' Riverina region and 500 kilometres south of Sydney, is facing flooding as water levels rise towards the 11-metre limit of their levee, and Mayor Kerry Pascoe is keeping an eye on developments.

Transcript

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The floods are rising along the Murrumbidgee River tonight as waters from the days of deluge flow downstream. The inland city of Wagga Wagga is bracing for its worst flooding in more than 30 years with the river expected to peak at 10 metres tomorrow. Kerry Pascoe is mayor of Wagga and he joined me earlier.

Kerry Pascoe, welcome.

KERRY PASOCE, WAGGA WAGGA MAYOR: Thankyou.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Can you tell us how high the river is at the moment and when you're expecting it to peak?

KERRY PASOCE: The river's about 9.75 metres at the present moment, and that will start to compromise the levee bank around north Wagga. There's around 200 horses there that will be inundated with water probably within the next two hours.

CHRIS UHLMANN: How many people have been evacuated so far?

KERRY PASOCE: From north Wagga, about 1,200, but we've also got villages of East Wagga and Gumly Gumly that are under evacuation as well.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Are you concerned that you might have to evacuate people in the dark if the river peaks late?

KERRY PASOCE: We've told people that they must get out and hopefully they're taking notice of that. So, we're relying on their good nature to leave their premises and allow things to happen and we'll have SES and council staff around the areas and that to try and help out wherever possible.

CHRIS UHLMANN: And is the message getting through? Are people hearing you and heeding the advice?

KERRY PASOCE: The majority of people - five o'clock yesterday afternoon when the call was made to leave, most people got into action straight away and moved furniture, their belongings and so forth. And then they came back, there was sandbag filling in north Wagga and they came back for sandbags to try and protect some of their premises.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Now you were in town in 1974 and that was the last time there was a comparable flood. How have things changed since then?

KERRY PASOCE: In 1974 the levee bank was compromised to a certain extent. It did hold at that time. We've - council have strengthened that over a period of time. There's concrete walls behind certain sections of it and some of the other parts of the levee have been strengthened. So, we're quite confident that it'll hold back the 10.6 metre flood that is expected some time during tomorrow morning.

CHRIS UHLMANN: What's the spirit of the people like at the moment?

KERRY PASOCE: Most people are pretty upbeat about the whole situation. There's just the odd rumours that are floating around here and there which are not true which, you know, does upset some people and I've been trying to put the message across that inside our main levee bank we have safety because of the fact that the lowest point, it is 11 metres. We're only going to 10.6. So we believe that everything inside the main levee is OK.